Standing on the shoulders of Giants

When I became a new Scoutmaster a good friend took me aside and gave me some great advice. He told me that its all about the Troop program. We were building a Troop from scratch and so he assured me that if we built a great program, the Scouts would come and we would have a troop that would do great things.
That was 7 years ago. We built a great program and as the Scouts got older they all added to that program building it stronger and stronger each year. Annually our District, like every other District in the BSA hosts their District Dinner or Annual Awards Banquet. For the past 4 years Troops 174, 544, and my Troop (664) have been competing for the Troop of the Year.. Trading off between the three of us, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, typically separated by 1 or points between Troops. My Troop has never been number one.. until now.
Last year Troop 174 won the top honors and we came in a very close second. There was a 3 point spread between 1st and 3rd place. This year there was a 4 point spread between 1st and 4th place and once again the three Troops were in the hunt. When they announced that Troop 544 was third place, I immediately thought.. “Well, we got second again this year”, then they announced that 174 was the runner up. My committee chair looked over at me and we smiled. “And the Troop of the Year is 664!” our Awards chair announced. 7 years of building and working with our Scouts to build this program and here it is the Troop of the Year for our District.
I am proud of the work that the Scouts have done, the support of a fantastic committee, and the dedication of some great Assistant Scoutmasters that made this all happen.
It all started with a Giant helping me get started. Thanks

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Congratulations Jerry and to your troop. You all deserve this recognition!

Here is a copy of “Within My Power” for your use:

Within My Power

I am not a Very Important Man, as importance is commonly rated. I do not have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority.

Yet I may someday mould destiny. For it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a boy. And every boy is a potential atom bomb in human history.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the Scoutmaster of a Troop in which an undersized unhappy Austrian lad by the name of Adolph might have found a joyous boyhood, full of the ideals of brotherhood, goodwill, and kindness. And the world would have been different.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the organizer of a Scout Troop in which a Russian boy called Joe might have learned the lessons of democratic cooperation.

These men would never have known that they had averted world tragedy, yet actually they would have been among the most important men who ever lived.

All about me are boys. They are the makers of history, the builders of tomorrow. If I can have some part in guiding them up the trails of Scouting, on to the high road of noble character and constructive citizenship, I may prove to be the most important man in their lives, the most important man in my community.

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy.

[By Forest E. Witcraft (1894 – 1967), a scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout administrator and first published in the October 1950 issue of Scouting magazine

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